ISLAMABAD: Pakistan – facing rapid urbanization- has witnessed a decrease in rural areas population from 61.4 percent in 2014 to 60.1 percent in 2016.
Whereas, the population in urban areas increased from 38.5 percent in 2014 to 40 percent in 2016.
Population Division figures have showed that Pakistan is one of those developing countries where urbanization is taking place rapidly and as a result the share of urban population is increasing.
According to data, in Pakistan migration generally takes place for economic reasons and movement from rural to urban areas is causing higher population growth rate in the latter.
However, the process of urbanization is accompanied with social, health and environmental issues and, therefore, requires proper planning to make the urbanization helpful in economic development of the country.
Moreover, with regard to labour force participation rate, the data showed that it indicates supply of labour in economy and the proportion of people in labour force of the country. It also shows working capacity of labours and job market trends.
In Pakistan labour force participation rate is estimated on basis of Crude Activity Rate (CAR) and Refined Activity Rate (RAR).
The labour force participation rate has slightly decreased from 32.9 percent in 2012-13 to 32.3 percent in 2014-15.
Female labour force participation rate increased from 15.6 percent in 2012-13 to 15.8 percent in 2014-15.
Male labour force participation rate decreased from 49.3 percent in 2012-13 to 48.1 percent in 2014-15.
Women in the workforce can be a major driver of economic growth. This increasing participation of women in paid work shows sincere and committed efforts by government to reduce gender gap in labour force participation rate. It also shows that women are getting better opportunities of obtaining technical and professional education a more jobs.
The comparison of rural and urban participation rates reveals that labour force participation rate is higher in rural areas as compared to urban areas because of agrarian economy.
As agriculture is treated as a family occupation in rural areas, therefore, the female labour force participation in ruralareas is higher as compared to urban areas.